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Time to stop the postal vote?

Postal votes were originally set up to assist those who could not make it to a polling station to vote in an election. Right up until the previous government they were a good idea and enabled the ill and the elderly their chance to have their say on an election. Come 2001 and Tony Blair’s Labour government the rules changed and anyone was allowed to apply for a postal vote, not just those where under strict criteria it was deemed unreasonable to expect a them to go to a polling station on polling day as a result of employment, disability or education restrictions.

A police investigation into fake voters in Tower Hamlets has been widened to include fake candidates after at least two fielded by the borough’s extremist-linked mayor, Lutfur Rahman, in last month’s elections appear to have given false addresses.
One of the candidates is standing again in a council by-election next month using a different name from the one he gave only three weeks ago – and a second, apparently false, address.
Making a false statement on a nomination paper is a criminal offence punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment.
The Telegraph has also identified a number of fake postal votes cast at last month’s election by people who do not live at the properties the votes were cast from.
Other, genuine postal voters told this newspaper that their blank postal ballot papers had been taken from them, against their will, by people working for Mr Rahman, even though they did not want to vote for him.

Ah yes, the islamic republic of Tower Hamlets, quelle surprise. Unfortunately the electoral traditions of Pakistan and Bangladesh have been brought to this country by immigrants and their idea of a vote is pretty much vote early and often. Indeed the Pakistani and Bangladeshi governments have commented that our electoral scrutiny of voters is appallingly weak compared to their own systems which have been designed to prevent fraud.

Now I really don’t want to take a vote away from anyone, but the system as it is needs to go back to what it was or scrapping completely and something else set up in its place. Electoral fraud is a serious problem in the UK now and certain communities led by unscrupulous, corrupt (and often extremist) leaders have used it to get votes necessary to force their candidates and supporters into political power.

I don’t know if Rahman would have won without the postal votes, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he hadn’t, nor do I see any real solution other than removing the postal vote from any who aren’t disabled and going back to the original system.

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5 comments for “Time to stop the postal vote?”

john in cheshire

June 15, 2014 at 11:19 am

I have for many years decided that the postal vote should be removed as an option. Everyone should be required to attend a polling station, armed with proof of identity.
In my more extreme moments, I also believe that rather than the usual ‘no taxation without representation’ mantra, there should actually be ‘no representation without taxation’.

Mudplugger

June 15, 2014 at 8:21 pm

Living close to an area where ballot-rigging is culturally de rigeur, the expansion of Postal Votes has simply made it easier: add that to the Proxy Vote scam for those who have long since left these shores, or even dead, and any election result becomes merely a reflection of who fiddles the best, nothing to do with policies.

In my view a Postal or Proxy vote should only be granted to someone already in possession of a ‘Blue Disabled Badge’ – a simply solution which may even yet rescue democracy in some diverse parts of the country.

Viscount Rectum

June 15, 2014 at 9:32 pm

A statement by Super bullshitter Cameron in the Observer 13-5-07 “If we want to remind ourselves of British values,hospitality, tolerance and generosity to name but three, there are plenty of British muslims ready to show us what these things really mean, not for the first time I find myself thinking that it is main stream Britain which needs to intergrate more with the British asian way of life not the other way round. This ridiculous statement was made two months before the 7-7 outrage in which British muslims killed 56 people on the London transport system. Cameron you suck.

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We are political and apolitical – some belong to parties, some do not. Some are self-professed libertarians, some are small “c” conservatives, some classical liberals – the names are varied. However we all have one thing in common, a love of personal liberty; that casualty of the encroaching state as it seeks to micromanage our lives. [Link in main menu]